Open Thread: Would You Bet a Business on Google Gadgets?
I’m scratching my head over Google’s latest money-burning effort in which they plan to lure more gadget developers with the promise of cash. The first part of it sounds okay; they’re going to reward successful developers and lure new hopefuls with grants of $5,000 a piece for further development:
The program will provide two kinds of funding. First, we’ll invite promising gadget developers (individuals or businesses) to apply for $5,000 grants to fund further development. These are not loans or equity investments; they’re simply grants for gadgets that already have a thriving user base and we think have potential for even more improvement. To be considered for a grant, your gadget needs to have more than 250,000 pageviews per week, and you need to provide a one-page proposal on how you’d like to improve your gadget. This is a no-strings-attached grant; we won’t ask for repayment of any kind. We simply ask that you work on your project in good faith.
I guess if you’re sitting on billions of cash, why not buy developers for your platform? That part makes sense. But they’re also offering bigger bucks to those who bet their business on gadgets — or who fortuitously develop a business with a “large Google Gadget component.”
Here’s where it looks like wishful thinking (or, perhaps, thinking born of having way more than enough money in the bank):
Secondly, the program will make $100,000 seed investments in companies that either start as a Google Gadget or have a large Google Gadget component. In order to be eligible for a seed investment, you must have received a $5,000 grant, and you must propose a plan for making your gadget financially sustainable.
The Google personalized home page seems like a great place to find more reach for your web service, but mainly as a feature, not something to build your business around. Of course it’s great for people who built a little Google gadget and watch it take off — they can take that to the bank.
If I were going to start a business, though, I wouldn’t center it around one particular platform, especially not one so limited as an Ajax start page. I’d build a standalone web service and then try to push it through as many channels as possible: as a Facebook application, on the various Ajax start pages including NetVibes, Pageflakes, and Google personalized home page, and as a widget capable of being added to anyone’s website.
What about you? Would you bet your business on Google Gadgets?
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It seems like a bit of a chicken and egg problem.
If Google can get lots of eager developers building Gadgets, it *should* drive more traffic and build customer loyalty to the Google homepage.
On the other hand, $100K isn’t really enough to justify making your entire business around a Gadget portal that may or may not get critical mass (at least in Google-scale terms).
When you have tons of excess cash, you can make risky bets – this the Google equivalent of spreading $5 chips all across the roulette table. Except if a few of these hit, the payoff is likely to be better than Vegas odds.
So your point is that you’re scratching your head? Over what, exactly? You’re confused that a company with capital is awarding grants to startups so they can build something that might make money?
Gee, that sounds like capitalism.
If I were going to start a business I wouldn’t argue with “home page to bigger than General Motors in five years.”
’nuff said.
Dave: yes, I agree, from Google’s position — why not? They can spread a lot of small bets around and see what happens. That makes tons of sense since you can’t predict the future. Doesn’t seem like a very risky bet from Google’s perspective, but it does from a developer’s. The developer needs to spread bets around the table too… not just to Google Gadgets.
I can’t see building a business based around Google Gadgets, but if if their home page does take off, maybe someone will end up with a business with a large Google Gadgets component, which is what the $100,000 grant seems to require.
What does it mean to have a “large Google Gadget component”? Pumping your info into Google’s home page seems like a minor part of any business, that’s what I was arguing against.
Hi!
Just to clarify, we already have tens of thousands of active gadget developers. This is a way to help people and companies go ever further, because great gadgets attract lots of users, and users run searches, which makes Google money.
As for the wording of the announcement, it’s intentionally vague– we’re hoping to see some clever ideas, both for individual gadgets, tools, libraries, etc.
As for building a business on gadgets, actually several companies are already doing this, and many more are using gadgets as part of their business. Like any new technology, the smart thing is to dabble first, let it grow organically, then make the jump. We want success stories!
I can’t wait to see what you come up with!
adam
Adam Sah
Architect, Google Gadgets
This is an excellent example of collaborative innovation, in my view. We see examples of pharma companies reaching out to other scientists. And who knows for $5000 they might turn over a stone that would have cost them tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop on their own (assuming they could).
I made a really nice-looking gadget back when most of them looked like circa 1997 web pages (OK, a lot of them still do!) and people started putting it on their websites. The gadgets are embedded into the site using an iframe, which basically means that all those people are displaying a window of my content on their site at no cost to me. Even better – that content is completely under my control and I can change it whenever I choose. Who needs banner ads? Of course I’d never just put up a blatant advertisment in the gadget, but the power of subliminal messages should never be underestimated :-)
So the short answer is, no, I probably wouldn’t build a business around it, but if Google wants to help subsidise my marketing efforts, I won’t complain!
guys, what is that blog about. http://facebook-proxy-vpn.blogspot.com i really don’t understand what is vpn. btw sorry for off-topic.
I have a flash site
i’m looking for the script who shows google ads with flash.
where can i get it?
did you mean http://flashsense.t35.com/ ?
Извините, что не по теме форума.
Сегодня кто может, давайте соберемся у театра «На Таганке», а кто не в Москве, давайте просто помянем его вечером рюмочкой коньяка.
Ему исполнился бы 71 год.